Reflections in Sanctuary
by robb1068
Summary: Piper has followed the Sole Survivor to Sanctuary, as the former vault dweller checks in on the settlement after a month in the Commonwealth. Only together a few weeks, but already best friends... That's enough time for some reflection, right? F!SS x Piper
1. Chapter 1

Piper was fidgeting.

She wasn't necessarily nervous, mind you.

Okay, maybe a little.

Truth was, she was a long way outside of her comfort zone; sitting in an abandoned house a day's walk north of her home in Diamond City. It was evening and a single lantern illuminated the remains of the living room. Someone had been living here recently; the room was cleaned and free of debris. A Mr. Handy robot, named Codsworth, had checked in on her a few times, apparently delighted that "the mum was entertaining guests again."

For all the traveling she did in chasing down news stories, Piper rarely strayed too far into the rural parts of the Commonwealth. Before yesterday, the furthest north she had traveled was either Cambridge or the caravan post at Bunker Hill. She always felt a little too exposed in the open spaces between the ruins of the small towns, and usually stayed south of the Charles.

Not that the downtown area was any safer, far from it actually. It was just that the dangers there were more familiar. Feral Ghouls, Gunners, Raiders, Super Mutants, the occasional Mirelurk… these were all things that Piper felt confident in outsmarting. Hell, Gunners and Raiders could actually be bargained with, which had allowed her the occasional entry into places like the Combat Zone.

If the stories the caravaners told were true, outside the downtown area things were a little different,. Feral Ghoul packs were larger; Gunners were more vicious; Raiders more desperate; and the Super Mutants better organized. Then there were the critters. In addition to Mirelurks, there were Radscorpions, the Yao Guai and of course the stuff of nightmares; Deathclaws. These things weren't interested in bargaining, they wanted to eat you.

Even molerats could be troublesome in a pack.

The reason Piper found herself so far from home, and fidgeting at each sound coming from the woods behind the house, was currently across the street arguing with the settlers of Sanctuary Hills.

Kate had stumbled into her life only a few weeks ago, but they had quickly become fast friends. The woman was looking for her son, a baby kidnapped from a Vault likely by agents of the Institute. Her story was incredible, almost too much to be believed: frozen for two hundred years and then thrown into a pursuit of the man that had murdered her husband and taken their child. Piper was amazed that the Commonwealth hadn't simply swallowed up this curiosity, but the hodgepodge of armor Kate wore over her vault suit and the sack of weapons she carried that day were a testament that the woman was a quick study. One look at the blue vault suit and Piper knew she had a nickname for the woman, inviting "Blue" over to her office for an interview later.

Once inside Diamond City however, Blue ran into the problematic truth that most of the residents didn't care about the troubles of outsiders. Piper published an interview for her newspaper, hoping to drum up sympathy for the vault dweller's plight, but no information was forthcoming. Nick Valentine was probably her best bet, but he was out of town working on a case.

After their paths kept crossing around town, Piper soon found herself tagging along while Kate solved small problems for people in and around Diamond City. The woman seemed to have a compulsive need to help people that Piper couldn't help but admire.

Kate was just a little bit taller than Piper, and had the same dark hair, but the similarities ended there. The woman was a former college athlete (something called the heptathlon?) and had the endurance to walk all day with a full pack of supplies.

Piper thought that Blue might be Chinese like Dr. Sun. But when she asked, Blue's reaction was an odd mixture of panic and scandal. "No, no, I'm Korean!" she quickly said. Then her gaze turned to the ruins of the city and the reporter heard her say, "I guess that distinction doesn't matter as much as it used to."

The woman's confidence and determination were infectious, and after a couple weeks waiting for Nick to return, Piper agreed to accompany Blue back to Concord to check on the settlers there. The following day the pair found themselves just south of town with a single caravaner named "Trashcan Carla". After some discussion, the trader agreed to add Sanctuary Hills to her route and they escorted her through town up to the settlement.

Then the fun began.

After crossing a bridge they walked into an old neighborhood of houses at sunset. Blue called out a greeting and a minute later she was answered with gunfire. All three took cover and after a few tense minutes of shouting back-in-fourth, a man that looked suspiciously like one of the Minutemen slowly came walking into view. Kate seemed to relax a little and called out to him. "Garvey, it's me! Kate Ryan! Tell whoever is shooting to stop!" After a few more minutes things were sorted out, but if Piper thought their troubles were over, she was mistaken. A couple of the settlers were extremely upset that Kate had returned with two strangers in tow. One sour-faced woman in particular (whom Piper suspected of being the cause of the gunfire) demanded that they leave and not return.

Piper narrowed her eyes at the woman and took a menacing step forward, only to feel Blue's hand on her shoulder. If her friend was upset over someone trying to throw her out of her own home, she didn't show it. Instead she smiled at the woman and said in a calm voice, "I'll tell you what Marcy, why don't we do this: How about those of us that call Sanctuary Hills home get together and talk this out?" She held her hand out in a placating gesture. "Now I know I didn't make the journey with you people from Quincy, but Sanctuary is also where I call home." Kate smiled again and looked over the group of settlers. "I'm sure if we just have a quiet discussion we can come to an agreement."

"Fine!" the woman spat. "Come on Jun, the sooner we get this started, the sooner they'll be on their way." The small group filed into a house near the center of the neighborhood. Kate handed Piper a lantern and asked her to get Carla settled in and to wait for her in the house across the street.

That was two hours ago. While initially there had been shouting and heated words, the conversation had become, for the most part, civil and Piper was unable to hear anything other than the general murmur of voices. In the last half hour there had even been a few bouts of soft laughter, which the reporter hoped was a good sign. Shortly thereafter, the small group began to break up and two figures slowly made their way toward the house already in conversation…

"...just to the southwest." The larger man walking alongside Kate pointed back toward the bridge that lead into the settlement. "If they're friendly, they might be open to trading."

The vault dweller nodded. "Yeah, Carla mentioned that there was a family farm nearby. The Abernathy's, I think. We'll check it out tomorrow."

"Great! In the meantime we'll get started on those fences you mentioned. We haven't seen a peep from anything remotely threatening, but like you said, it's best to be prepared."

The pair stepped into the house, and Kate felt herself begin to relax when she saw Piper's relieved smile. While the former lawyer had been confident that her argument would win out, it was still good to be near someone that she knew had her back completely.

"I think some introductions are in order." Kate said. "Piper, this is Sturges. He's our handyman-extraordinaire of the settlement here. Sturges, this is Piper Wright, Editor-in-Chief of Publick Occurrences. That's the newspaper in Diamond City."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Piper." Sturges said as the two shook hands. "Sorry about the fuss when you came into town. Some folks are still working to put the past behind them."

The reported shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time that people started shooting as soon as they saw me."

"And I don't look anything like I did when I left you guys last month." Kate gestured to herself. Her blue vault suit long gone, the woman was clad in road leathers, favored by caravan guards, and covered by some patchwork armor.

The big man smiled at them both. "I'm glad it all worked out and nobody got hurt." He began walking towards the hallway that lead back to the bedrooms. "Just gonna grab my stuff and I'll leave you ladies be."

Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Sturges had already gone. She looked over at Piper and gave her friend a tired smile.

Piper gave her a questioning look, "Crisis averted?"

"Crisis averted." was the reply. Kate began removing her armor and hung her jacket across a chair in the kitchen.

Piper nodded once, "Good. I wasn't really looking forward to walking back to Concord in the dark to find shelter for the night." Then she gave Kate a wicked grin. "Would've been easier just to pop that lady in the nose."

"Piper! Shhhhh." But the rebuke was mixed with laughter. The same thought had occurred to Kate at one point during her argument with Marcy.

Sturges re-appeared shortly thereafter carrying two boxes with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, "I have some more stuff in the storage room, but I can clear that out tomorrow."

Kate touched his arm, gratitude evident on her face. "Thanks again Sturges. I know it probably sounds stupid and petty, and I hate putting you out, literally…"

"Now, now, don't you think twice about it. Plenty of other houses to set up in. Besides, how many of the abandoned houses in the Commonwealth have the original owner come back?" He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe if they're a ghoul."

She grinned back at him, "Well, I haven't made a mortgage payment in over two hundred years, so technically the bank owns the house. I'll check with them the next time I'm in Lexington."

Sturges didn't quite get the jest, but he laughed anyway. "All right now. Goodnight Miss Kate. Miss Piper, nice meeting you." He stepped out of the house and left the two women alone.

Piper walked over to her friend and softly punched her on the arm. "I gotta admit Blue, I wasn't too sure about the idea of a town hall meeting to settle the whole caravan issue. I thought we might be run out of town. Also wouldn't be the first time for me."

Kate shook her head, "To be honest, it wasn't even close to a fair fight." Now stripped of her armor, the woman was clearing a space at the kitchen table. "For future reference, don't challenge a lawyer to an argument, especially one that was on UCLA's debate team. You're not going to win."

"Duly noted." Finally convinced that they were staying for the night, Piper pulled off her trusty trench coat and hat, hanging them on a chair with her well worn scarf. She stretched out the tension from her muscles, then turned to see what Blue was up to.

They had encountered a trio of Super Mutants just outside of Lexington that morning and had been able to dispatch all three after a short gunfight. One of the spoils had been a laser rifle that had caused Kate to laugh in astonishment. "I'll be damned… A two hundred year old AER9." She gathered up the rifle and all the fusion cells she could find on the fallen giant.

Now she had the rifle and a small collection of tools spread out on the table illuminated by the light of a nearby lantern. Piper watched in mute fascination as her friend carefully inspected the weapon… applying adhesive tape to a frayed wire or tightening up some loose screws. The reporter dug out her own 10mm pistol and looked it over, ejecting the magazine and clearing the chamber. Every once in a while it would jam and if she couldn't clear it herself, she would take it to Arturo who would fix it for a few caps. It didn't appear that Blue was going to have that problem.

Satisfied that her new laser rifle was in good working condition, Kate watched Piper for a few minutes as the other woman carefully eyeballed her pistol. Looking at the other woman made her smile and not for the first time she marveled at her good fortune in running into the reporter outside of Diamond City.

At first she had thought she could go it alone, a vengeful mother scouring the land in search of her child. Concord had been her first lesson in the truth of this new world. It wasn't just the people… Raiders… that had been assaulting the museum. During the firefight some kind of prehistoric monster had appeared, tearing the remaining raiders to pieces and then bearing down on her. By the grace of God and her newly acquired mini gun, the beast had gone down, but not before the thing had slammed into her, sending her sprawling down the street. If she had not been in Power Armor at the time, there's no doubt that she would've been torn apart. There was little comfort in Garvey's statement that these "Deathclaw" creatures were rare this far north.

Her next lesson occurred a week later near Cambridge. A week spent around Concord had helped familiarize herself with the new world she had stepped out into. Kate realized that her best bet for information would lie in getting to Diamond City, so she made her way south following the old Concord Turnpike toward the ruins of Boston. Once she got close enough to the Charles River, she realized exactly what Diamond City was and she laughed. Laughed hysterically at the absurdity of it all. Laughed at her chances of finding Shaun in this vast, insane world. Laughed until she wept. It was in this state that Kate spotted the men, walking in formation on the other bank of the Charles. Raiders she had quickly become proficient at spotting, adopting a policy of "avoid or shoot first" toward them. These men may have been in worn, dirty fatigues, but they were definitely military. Could they be trusted? Buoyed by the protection of the river between them, she called out to the group.

"Oh hey doll, who are you?" one replied.

"I'm looking for my son... trying to reach Diamond City." she replied back.

"We can help you out. Just stay there and we'll be right over."

Two of the men began to argue, with one man pointing in the direction they had been previously heading. At first Kate couldn't hear what they were saying, but as the argument progressed the pair got louder. Her heart sank when she heard the first man call her "a fresh out of the vault girl that's worth a lotta caps". The third member was a woman standing apart from the others keeping watch. She replied to an unheard question just loud enough for Kate to hear, "I don't care if we keep her or sell her. Just as long as we get to have our fun first!"

False hope had kept her rooted in place, while her gut had told her to run. Her gut won out and Kate turned and fled. Shouts and gunfire peppered after her from the far bank, but she was soon safe. Could anyone be trusted out here? Tired and dispirited, she finally made her way to the gates of Diamond City.

And there Kate met Piper.

She didn't know what to make of the reporter at first. Piper used her to gain access to the ballpark turned settlement, but Kate went along with it. Then she dragged her into an ongoing argument with the settlement's mayor. The younger woman talked fast with a nervous rambling energy as she described the "great green jewel" as the pair made their way inside Diamond City. Once inside Piper pointed out the shops where the newcomer could sell her extra stuff, a place to eat and a place to sleep.

"Look Blue, I gotta get settled." Piper gestured at the shack behind her. "This is my place. "Publick Occurrences." Stop by later for an interview?"

Blue?

"Your jumpsuit, Blue. Always wanted to interview a vault dweller." The reporter winked at Kate, turned and walked away.

The first few days in Diamond City were difficult for Kate. She talked to everyone she could, but no one had any information about her baby or the man that took him. Some people were sympathetic, some much less so. By and large, most people didn't want to get involved. The people that did talk were sure that Shaun had been taken by an organization called "The Institute" and the one person that could help was a private detective named Nick Valentine. Naturally, he was out of town on a case.

Someone who did want to get involved was the reporter, Piper. After the promised interview they talked and a lot of the younger woman's bluster faded as the two got to know one another. They crossed paths frequently the first week which usually led to lunch together or a drink at the Dugout. Kate's frustration turned to action and she began to look for ways to help some of the people in Diamond City while she waited for Valentine to return. Learning about a proposed trip to a nearby Hardware Town, Piper insisted on accompanying her. "Blue, you can't just go off on your own like that! People are gonna worry." Returning late, Kate was too tired to protest when she was lead over to the couch inside Publick Occurances and covered up with a blanket. "Save your caps Blue. We're going to need them to find your boy." As she fell asleep, Kate thought that the word "we" sounded wonderful.

"That was, what, three weeks ago?" Kate mused to herself while Piper continued her inspection of her pistol. They had been pretty much inseparable since then and Kate felt lucky to have made such a good friend.

"Alright Piper," Kate held out her hand, "why don't you let me take a look?"

"Finally!" the reporter said with feigned drama. "I was wondering how long I was gonna have to appear helpless before you noticed."

Kate rolled her eyes as she took the pistol from her friend. "Somehow I don't think "helpless" is a word that would ever describe you."

The reporter batted her eyelashes, "Flatterer."

Shaking her head and smiling, the vault dweller gave the pistol a visual inspection. It appeared to be in good working order, but a quick cleaning probably wouldn't hurt either. Grabbing a cloth and a small bit of oil, she quickly disassembled the weapon and began wiping down the individual components.

While her friend worked on the pistol, Piper looked around the dimly lit room once more. "So this used to be your house, huh? You actually lived here before the war?"

"Yup." Kate paused to look around, then resumed cleaning. "A little worse for wear now, but yeah, this was my home before… everything went to Hell."

"Must be kinda weird to see the place you grew up completely trashed like this." Piper winced thinking how cruel that had sounded. "Geez, Blue I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a complete ass."

The other woman smirked in reply. "Don't worry about it Piper. You're lucky I've grown quite fond of your ass the last couple weeks."

Piper blushed with embarrassment. "That was really a stupid thing to say… What's wrong with me?" she thought to herself. Piper made eye contact with Kate and spoke earnestly, "Seriously, the last thing in the world I want to do is hurt your feelings."

Kate laughed softly, "I know." She looked up at her friend and smiled as the reporter visibly relaxed.

"But yes, it has been a lot to take in. If I think too much about it, I just…" She closed her eyes and shook her head. That was a rabbit hole she didn't want to go down right now. "I try and focus on finding Shaun. The settlements stuff for the Minutemen? Well, that helps people and that's great and all, but it also puts me in contact with more people. Maybe someone that knows something about the man that took my son." She gestured behind her to the outside, "Like these Abernathy's. They live practically a stone's throw away from the entrance to the vault. Maybe they spotted something."

Piper nodded in understanding, but she had a feeling that Kate was something special. That her friend would be helping with the settlements even if she wasn't searching for her missing son.

They were both quiet for a moment while Kate continued to clean Piper's pistol. "I'll let you in on a little secret though." she grinned when the word "secret" made Piper's eyes light up. "I didn't grow up here."

"Really?!" the reporter wasn't completely surprised though. Her friend certainly didn't speak like some of the locals that had grown up in the Commonwealth.

"Scout's honor." Kate said, holding up two fingers. "I only moved to Concord a couple years ago after Nate and I were married and I was discharged from the Army."

Piper had to interrupt at that revelation, "Wait. You were in the Army? Like before the war?"

She gave the reporter a mock salute, "Lieutenant Katherine Park, reporting for duty."

"So that's how you know how to shoot and take apart a gun…"

"Pistol."

"Whatever." Piper was quiet a moment, trying to recall what she had read about the war before the bombs had dropped. "So, were you at Anchor Ridge? Did you fight in the battle there?"

Something flashed in those dark eyes for a moment before her face settled into a neutral expression. "I was stationed in Alaska and was part of the Anchorage front for a while, but I was just a staff officer with the battalion headquarters. My husband Nate was the big hero." She shrugged her shoulders. "Later I was posted to Vancouver, attached to the Military Legal Affairs group supporting the occupation."

Piper's nose twitched. Blue was definitely leaving out a lot and her response sounded a little too practiced. She could tell there was more to the story, but she was reluctant to push her friend for more details so late in the evening.

"There we go." Kate had re-assembled the pistol and handed it back to Piper. "Just let me take a look at it in the evenings if we've been in a firefight that day. Or, I can show you how to clean it yourself and you can can take care of it on your own when I'm not around."

 _When I'm not around_ … Piper felt a pang in her chest at that comment and quickly covered it up with a joke. "Oh sure, I've heard about you army types. Show a girl how to clean her gun and then skip town."

Apparently her joke was far more hilarious than she thought because Blue was soon doubled over from laughing. "Oh, Piper," she wiped a tear from her eye, "I could tell you stories about "gun cleaning" that would make you blush."

It took the reporter a moment to clue in and then she turned as red as her coat. "Oh God, I can't believe I said that." She buried her face in her hands and mumbled, "I'm an idiot."

She felt herself being embraced in a hug and then Blue's voice was whispering in her ear, "You're fucking adorable is what you are." Kate's breath was hot in her ear and Piper felt a quiver run down her body. She felt weak, but in a really good way and it took a great deal of effort not to allow herself to melt into the other woman's arms.

The moment passed and then she was at arm's length again. Piper had put her hands down and could see Kate's face beaming in the soft lantern light. She was so beautiful and Piper swore she felt her heart skip when Blue had called her " _adorable_ ". She hated to admit it, but she was starting to fall for Blue. Fantasies about being with her had started to creep into Piper's thoughts and she was beginning to imagine that the other woman was occasionally flirting with her. Then she thought of Shaun and… Nate and that warm feeling in her stomach faded. Blue had a husband, only a month dead. "She's not going to think of me like that," the reporter thought glumly. "I am an idiot."

Those dark eyes were studying her and after a long moment Kate spoke earnestly, "I have no intention of skipping out on you, Piper Wright. So you're going to be stuck with me for a while, ok?"

Piper nodded, not trusting herself to speak yet.

"Good." The vault dweller reached out and took Piper's hands in her own. "I know we've only known each other for a few weeks, but I trust you. And I know that's a pretty rare commodity out here. I trust that you'll help me find Shaun and I trust that you have my back."

Piper could feel her cheeks heating up again and mumbled out a joke. "Yeah, well, traveling the Commonwealth with my own pre-war relic was always a dream of mine." She looked up at Kate's face and faltered. This was a serious moment and she was making a damn mess of it! Piper nodded quickly, "You're right. About all of it and… trust IS a rare commodity and I feel the same way about you." She smiled, "I'd trust you with Nat in a heartbeat and that says a lot. You're an amazing friend." Then she laughed, "And not just amazing in the two-hundred-year-old-thawed-popcicle way either."

Kate laughed too. "Great! Now that we've re-affirmed our friendship, let's get settled in for the night. We've got more walking ahead of us tomorrow."

The pair hugged again and Piper tried to ignore how good it felt.

They took their packs back to the bedroom and spread out the sleeping bags on the large mattress there. Whether or not it was the same one from two hundred years ago, Kate couldn't tell.

The two women stripped out of their travel clothes and put on more comfortable sleepwear. Piper couldn't help but admire Kate standing in the lantern light, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts and putting her long dark hair into a ponytail. The woman was athletic, her body free of malnutrition, disease, radiation and was like nothing Piper had ever seen before. "Gun cleaning," she thought to herself and smirked. She was going to need some "alone time" soon.

Once the lantern was off, the bedroom was far from dark as light from the moon and stars illuminated a night sky free from the light pollution of the now darkened city. Lying still in her sleeping bag, Piper was staring at the ceiling when something Kate had said earlier jumped to mind.

"So Blue, just where are you from anyway?" The reporter spoke softly to the woman lying next to her.

"Torrance, California," was the whispered reply. "My great-great-grandparents came to the U.S. and settled there after World War Two. That was about a hundred years before I came along. Ever hear of it or California? It's near Los Angeles."

"No, I mean, I've heard of the NCR. That's the New California Republic, but that had to come along after the war." She didn't want to tell Blue that she had heard caravaners call that area the "Boneyard".

"New California Republic." A soft chuckle. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"Goodnight Blue."

"Goodnight Piper."

"Piper?"

"Hmmmm?"

She felt Kate's hand brush against her wrist and then slide down to grip her hand. Their fingers entwined and gently squeezed.

"I'm happy I found you."

Piper squeezed back and then relaxed, thinking that Blue would let go of her hand. But she didn't and in a few minutes Piper could hear her friend's breathing even out and the occasional soft snore escape. Still holding hands, that warm feeling in Piper's stomach had returned and she felt a smile make it's way across her face as she drifted off to sleep.

Maybe she wasn't such an idiot after all.

* * *

Author's note: Hey! Four years of reading fan fiction and I've finally published something. I hope you like it! Big thank you's to HuntressoftheLight for the initial help and especially to my beta reader, Princess Dystopia.


	2. Chapter 2

"Watch your digits, Blue," Piper hissed. "Ferals."

Kate dropped down into a crouch and shouldered her laser rifle. She felt Piper tap her arm and then point at a clump of refuse near the side of the ruined green cabin the pair had been approaching. A creature had crawled out of the pile on to its feet and was staggering around like a drunk leaving a bar an hour after last call. The tattered rags and the horrible disfigurement of the body made it impossible to determine if this had once been a man or a woman.

"So this is a ghoul." The vault dweller thought. No, a _feral_ ghoul she corrected herself, remembering that there were two types of ghouls in the wastelands: ones that were otherwise normal except for their irradiated appearance and the ferals that would mindlessly attack you. Kate had encountered neither kind of ghoul in her brief time in the Commonwealth.

"There's a first time for everything," she muttered while sighting down the lurching form. She knew exactly what needed to be done. She squeezed the trigger of her rifle and sent a blast of energy that shot just over the ghoul's head.

The creature made a rasping growl and began to shamble in her direction.

"Shit." Still calm, the one-time soldier let off another shot, this time passing just over the ghoul's left shoulder.

"Blue! Are you trying to impress me with a trick shot or something?!" Piper exclaimed, clearly exasperated. The reporter took a couple steps forward to close the distance with the advancing ghoul and snapped off three shots from her pistol into the thing's chest. The ghoul made a gurgling sound as it stumbled over backwards and fell on its back. It didn't get back up.

Piper looked back at her companion. "Nothing fancy, Blue. Just put the damn thing down."

Kate's brow was furrowed in confusion. "I thought…" She began, but the sound of another ghoul approaching caught her attention.

"Ok," she said, "nothing fancy." This time her aim was true, leaving a blackened scorch mark on the creature's torso and briefly igniting its rags. As that one dropped, a third ghoul was reveled and Kate placed a shot dead center in its chest. It went white-hot for a split second before turning to ash.

Kate stood up and turned to Piper, chuckling to herself. "You're not going to believe what I thought I had to do."

"Behind you, Blue!" Piper's eyes went wide and she raised her pistol, but had no shot with her friend in the way.

The vault dweller turned just in time to see that a fourth ghoul had emerged from the cabin, but instead of slowly shambling toward them, it had launched itself into a full sprint.

Kate did the only thing she could think of: She ducked under the creature's swing and allowed it to trip over her body. The ghoul landed in a heap as Piper sidestepped to avoid getting knocked over herself. Before it could stand, the reporter put two shots into the ghoul's torso and then another two in it's head after it sagged back to the ground.

"Fuck." Kate growled to herself. She quickly got up on her feet and put her back to her companion's. The pair slowly turned in a 360 degree circle, but nothing else threatening appeared. The danger had passed.

Piper grinned. "Still want to look inside the cabin?"

"I think we've paid for it, don't you?" Kate shook her head in frustration. That could have gone a lot better or, a lot worse. She gave Piper's shoulder a squeeze and nodded to her in appreciation. Thank God her friend had been there. Piper accepted the silent thanks with a gracious smile.

The pair cautiously resumed their approach to the cabin, carefully checking the small pile of debris for any remaining feral ghouls. Satisfied they were clear, Kate made her way into the cabin with Piper covering her. This may be overkill, she thought to herself, but the former solider didn't want another surprise like the last one.

The cabin was deserted save for some odds-and-ends and a small chemistry lab.

"So, just what were you doing?" Piper asked as they poked around the cabin. "I watched you shoot up a bunch of raiders at that Hardware Town without any problems. Is it the new rifle?" She gestured at the laser rifle that Kate had obtained the prior day from a fallen Super Mutant.

"What? Oh, no… That's not it." Kate's cheeks colored faintly as she turned to face the reporter. "I, ah, thought you had to shoot them in the head, like a zombie."

"Where on earth did you get that idea?" Piper asked.

"Well, Preston had told me about ferals," Kate began, "but I assumed that you had to…"

Piper interrupted, " _Unstoppables_ issue #16: Island of the Witch Doctor." She grinned at her friend. "Is that right? That's the one with the zombies and the Mistress of Mystery figures out that they have to shoot 'em in the head to kill them, right?"

"Something like that." Kate couldn't recall reading "The Unstoppables" when she was a kid, but "shoot 'em in the head" was a fairly common zombie troupe. "I can remember it from horror movies and TV shows." She shrugged. "I guess my aim's not good enough to pull that shot off yet."

"Well, do me a favor, Blue and practice on something that isn't in the process of trying to kill us." Piper joked as she resumed searching the cabin. "Annnnd here's a hatch leading… Somewhere." The reporter finished with exaggerated drama.

Kate walked over to where Piper was standing and looked down at the hatch in the corner of the room. "Looks like there's a bit more of this cabin to explore." She reached down and grabbed the handle, then paused and looked up at the Piper. "You know, if this was a movie, as soon as I opened this hatch, a shitload of ghouls would come pouring out."

"Geez, Blue. You're just full of cheerful thoughts." The reporter rolled her eyes. "Why couldn't you have said, "a shitload of teddybears would come pouring out?" Or even better, "look Piper… It's a brand new printing press!"" Piper sighed. "It's probably just an old flooded cellar anyway."

None the less, Piper took a couple steps back, had her pistol ready and made sure she had a clear path to the door, while Kate indicated that she would go out the window if she had to.

Opening the hatch proved to be anti-climatic, as it produced neither ghouls, teddybears or a printing press (and it wasn't flooded!). A single ghoul was the lone inhabitant in the cellar and they quickly dispatched it with a hail of gunfire. Further exploration was halted as Piper spotted the toxic yellow barrels at the same time that the rad-counter on Kate's Pip-Boy began clicking, forcing the pair back to a safe distance. Scoring what treasures they could, the two made their way back to Concord and dropped off the items at a pre-arranged pickup-up spot.

* * *

"So, you said we're looking for a stolen locket?" Piper spoke as they walked through the ruins of the small town.

Kate nodded as she took a swallow from a can of water, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Yeah. When I spoke with Blake Abernathy back on the farm he said they've had raider troubles every once in a while. I guess some time back, his oldest daughter stood up to raiders and they killed the poor thing." A look of genuine sorrow crossed her face as she handed the water can to Piper.

"Oh Blue," thought the reporter. Her friend hadn't come to terms yet that life in the Commonwealth sometimes isn't fair, no matter who the victim is. Piper had learned that lesson herself when her mother had abandoned their family and then a second time for her younger sister Natalie, when their father was killed.

"When I brought up trading with Sanctuary and mentioned the Minutemen, Blake said he'd be open to both if we could retrieve that locket from the raiders." Kate gestured to the low hills to the northeast where a pre-war satellite dish could be seen off in the distance. "I guess they're holed up in an old Air Force station."

"And you've done this sort of thing before, right?" Piper asked. "Taken on a group of raiders for a settlement in the name of the Minutemen?"

"Yes," came the reply. "Tenpines Bluff was being harassed by raiders and I, uh, went and dealt with them. That was just before I headed for Diamond City." Kate hoped that Piper wouldn't ask her to elaborate on the story. The vault dweller had yet to learn at that point to shoot raiders on sight and she had called out to those in the small house to surrender and leave the area. Fortunately they had responded with gunfire and she and Dogmeat were eventually able to take down the small gang. Fortunate because if they had employed any subtly, they might have been able to lure her into the small house with an offer to negotiate and then overpower her.

"And that would have been the end to my story." She thought to herself. "And I would have never been able to meet the amazing Piper Wright." Kate looked over at her friend and smiled when she saw the reporter was busy scribbling in her notepad.

"Ten. Pines. Bluff"

"Working on another story, Piper?" Kate gestured at the notepad the reporter was slipping back in her pocket.

"Always, Blue." her friend grinned back at her. "Always." Piper then stopped dead in her tracks. "Holy shit."

Kate followed the reporter's gaze to the ruined remains of the deathclaw she had fought over a month earlier. The carcass was in bad shape; first having been stripped by the Sanctuary settlers, then set ablaze, then likely picked over by smaller scavengers. But the body of the decaying animal was still an impressive sight and Piper couldn't help but gape at the size of the thing.

"And Blue had fought the damn thing on foot." Piper thought to herself. Granted, with a minigun and in a suit of power armor, but still. Deathclaw stories had always frightened her as a kid, even though Piper had never actually seen one before today. She looked over at her friend and couldn't hide the awe in her face.

The vault dweller blushed slightly and shrugged. "Yeah. Helluva welcome to the Commonwealth, huh?"

Piper shuddered and then shook her head. She didn't want to think about what might have happened if Blue hadn't been able to take care of herself that day. She needed a distraction. Something else to talk about. "Hey, uh, can I ask you something?" She asked cautiously. "It's about the past, like before the war."

Kate was slightly surprised, thinking that her friend was going to ask more about the fight with the deathclaw. Initially, the "woman out of time" had been reluctant to speak too much to the reporter of the past, her own or in general. Her brain had still been trying to process everything that had happened to her, so she had stymied many of Piper's questions. As the pair's friendship grew and they warmed to each other, a funny thing happened; the normally nosey reporter respected her new friend's privacy, even as the vault dweller became comfortable enough to talk about herself.

"Ask away, Piper." Kate spread her arms apart. "You're letting me crash on your couch, the least I can do is answer your questions."

Piper grinned. "Careful, Blue. Once I get going with the questions, sometimes it's hard to stop." The reporter gestured to the ruins surrounding them. "So, this was Concord. I know you didn't grow up here, but you did live here a while, right?"

"Yes, about two years." She sighed. "Two New England winters... And I thought Alaska was cold and snowy."

Piper smiled, trying to picture the town covered in snow. She had never seen the stuff beyond the pages of a book, but some caravaners claimed it could be found in the mountains to the northwest. "I don't think you'll need to worry about snow anytime soon. But, can you tell me what Concord was like? I mean, what was it like when people lived here?"

"Hmmmm..." Kate thought for a moment. "It was a little odd living here to be honest. It was a small town, steeped in history. One of the first battles of the Revolutionary War was fought here three hun... no, five hundred years ago, so besides the museum," she pointed back to the building behind Piper, "there was all sorts of "Colonial this" or "Colonial that" with all the businesses in town."

"So what was odd about that?"

"Well maybe it was a little odd just to me." Kate allowed. "I grew up in a pretty large and modern metropolitan area, so small town New England life was a bit of a culture shock. It was all history book stuff, right? And here I was living in it, with the Minutemen statue, the wooden bridges and every other building with a bronze historical marker."

"What was a typical day like?"

"I don't think I had a typical day the entire time I lived here." Kate laughed. "The first year I was finishing my law degree, which meant going into the city every day and long hours studying. After that I was pregnant and then had Shaun to take care of." The duo had resumed walking east and were slowly approaching the end of the buildings that were still standing in Concord.

The vault dweller was quiet for a bit before speaking again. "Still, it was a nice place to live. There was a Slocum's Joe back on Thoreau… I'd grab a coffee there before catching the train into the city when I was still in law school. And we were close enough that we could walk into town when the weather was nice. That saved some money from having to buy coolant for the car." A small smile crept across her face. "Nate had an army buddy that lived nearby and before I was pregnant, we'd meet up with him at the Forge for drinks every once in a while. Larry and Claire. Nice couple. They were going to start a family of their own just as soon as Larry could find a job."

"Concord had this odd way of keeping the troubles of the world at bay." Kate continued, her expression turning sad. "The world was hurtling toward the edge of a cliff and yet here, everything felt normal. It was... comforting, even if deep down inside you knew it was a lie."

Kate grew silent, her thoughts drifting back to the past. "If this is Lexington Road, then Nate's parent's house would be just over there," she thought to herself. The Ryan's had been good people. They had accepted Katherine Park into their home and treated her like a daughter, without reservation. They had been thrilled when the young couple had decided to live in Concord and then over the moon when Shaun was born. As far as she knew, they had died never knowing the truth about her and Nate's marriage.

"A lot of good people lived here." She said softly. "Better people than me, but they're all gone now." Kate turned and looked back at the ruins of Concord and thought about the previous hustle and bustle of the small town and how empty and still it now felt. "I guess I'm the sole survivor."

"Hey now, Blue." Piper stepped close and put her hand on Kate's arm and squeezed. "You're not alone. You've got a boy out there and we're going to find him, I promise." When her friend looked over at her, Piper flashed her best smile. "And, I hate to break it to you, Blue. But you're stuck with me."

"Stuck with you, huh?" The phrase made the vault dweller grin.

"Afraid so." Piper looked over her friend, pleased to see that the melancholy was fading. "Seriously, Kate. I… I just wanted to let you know, I'm real happy to be along for the ride."

Maybe it was because Piper had called her "Kate" and not "Blue", but the lighthearted mood vanished and the vault dweller suddenly felt very serious. Finding her baby, finding Shaun in the vast expanse of the wastes was going to be nearly impossible. But Piper made her believe that it could be done, Hell, that it _would_ be done. Mama Murphy was right; Kate was stronger, better because of Piper. _Just happy to be along for the ride?_ She couldn't imagine doing this without the reporter by her side.

"I wouldn't want it any other way." Kate said softly. She reached over and brushed a hand across Piper cheek and smiled. "I like having you close."

"Oh. Uh, thanks Blue. That's, that's awful sweet… and unexpected of you." Piper touched her face where the other woman's fingers had brushed her skin. It felt warm. And the way she had been looking at her just now… Wow! To her chagrin, her whole face began to heat up as the reporter realized she was blushing. A blush had crept across the face of her friend as well and the pair awkwardly looked away from each other.

"So, uh, you want to get out of here?" Piper managed to stammer out. "Go find a missing locket and make the Commonwealth a little brighter for someone?"

Kate nodded. "Absolutely." The pair made their way into the low hills and the vanishing shadows of the late morning sun.

* * *

Author's note: New chapter! One chapter every two years is my current writing speed, so at least one more Fallout game will be announced before the next one. :-D


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